Last night, the state board of education in Hawaii voted to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards. That brings the official national adoption count for the common science standards up to 18 states and the District of Columbia.
As we’ve written, the Next Generation Science Standards emphasize scientific inquiry and engineering design, and ask students to link broad concepts across the science fields. The standards were developed by 26 “lead state partners”—a group that did not include the Aloha State.
Implementation of the standards in Hawaii will happen over four years starting in the 2016-17 school year, according to the board. The plan for implementation will be submitted to the board at a later date.
Action item: Adoption of #NGSS with four-year implementation: https://t.co/gf9P1WpHRb Board approves. #HawaiiBOE
— HI Dept of Education (@HIDOE808) February 17, 2016
Onlookers in Hawaii appear to have been anticipating this adoption—in fact, I received at least one press release over the last few weeks from a STEM group claiming the standards had already been approved.